Turnov – The tenth jubilee of the Ludvik Danek Memorial (former World record holder and Olympic champion) provided excellent highlights. Nearly 2000 spectators saw in cloudy weather (15 degrees) the first ever throw over 70 metres in the country which gave birth to the first ever discus World champion Imrich Bugar, who is the athlete liaison for the meet.

Last round winning effort

But they needed to wait until the last round. Until then World champion and World leader Gerd Kanter of Estonia was on top with his second round toss of 69.62m. Reigning Olympic champion Virgilijus Alekna of Lithuania came close to taking over the lead with 69.32m in the fifth round.

It didn’t take much longer for Alekna to snatch the lead as the Lithuanian giant exploded with a 71.25m last round effort, a new all-comers record and the second best in the world this year.

“Great competition at the start of the season. I just returned from my training camp in Spain and must be satisfied. This will be a special season for me, because it will be my last Olympic one, that is for sure. Not last at all, but Olympic,” he said.

His younger rival Kanter wasn’t too disappointed himself.

“Not bad, of course you do not want to lose in last round. But the wind changed in the second part of the competition and I could get a better throw. I m still jet-lagged after my return from USA.”

Their series - Alekna: 67.93-f-67.37-67.86-69.32-71.25, Kanter: 66.10-69.62-f-67.30-66.37-f.

Hungarian Olympic medallist Zoltan Kovago was third with 64.80m while the best current Czech thrower Libor Malina achieved the Olympic B-qualifier with 63.10 m. 

Spotakova close to 65m in season opener

Javelin World champion Barbora Spotakova opened her season in style. In her first throw she achieved a new world leading 64.98m. Last year her opening mark, also in Turnov, was 63.65m.

Her next competitions are the EAA meeting in Zaragoza, Spain on 31 May and the Ostrava Golden Spike on 12 June.

“I was not nervous although it was my first competition after long time. I wanted a 64 metres throw, so I must be satisfied. My training showed that such a distance is very realistic,” she said after the following series: 64.98-f-62.43-f-p-59.88.

In second Jarmila Klimesova threw 60.23m.

In other events home shot putter Petr Stehlik threw a season’s best 20.17m and the same for Antonin Zalsky (19.96m). The last events ended in rainy conditions and young Jakub Holusa clocked a solo 1:48.15 win at 800m; Jaroslav Baba was the only athlete to jump over 2.20m while Tomas Janku and Svatoslav Ton had to settle for 2.15m for second and third.

Alfons Juck for the IAAF